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Over the years, as sports betting has become a norm, lines have been crossed.
In 2023, several NFL players were suspended for multiple games for violating the league’s gaming policy. Later that year, Iowa and Iowa State athletes were punished. A year later, Shohei Ohtani found himself embroiled in controversy after millions of dollars were paid in his name for gambling debts. In the end, the FBI discovered that it was his former interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, who was stealing his money to pay for his own losses.
That April, NBA player Jontay Porter was permanently banned from the NBA after retiring early from games to get out of large gambling debts so he and his co-conspirators could win bets on their performance.
But this year, FBI involvement increased as high-profile athletes were charged with serious crimes.
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(Left) Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier III (2) controls the ball against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second quarter at Wells Fargo Center. The action took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 5, 2025. (Center) Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase (48) reacts in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees during Game 4 of the American League Championship Series for the 2024 MLB playoffs at Progressive Field. The game was played in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 18, 2024. (Right) Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups takes a timeout during the first half against the Golden State Warriors at Moda Center. The game was played in Portland, Oregon, on April 11, 2025. (Kyle Ross/Imagn Images;David Dermer/Imagn Images;Troy Wayrynen/Imagn Images)
Arguably the biggest takedown was that of three NBA figures linked to an investigation with La Cosa Nostra. Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were arrested in October and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Rozier was placed on leave and under investigation by the NBA in February, following a 2023 game in which he played less than 10 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets. Rozier allegedly told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he was retiring from the game early, citing an injury so Laster could place bets based on the information.
Neither Hornets management nor betting companies were informed of Rozier’s scheme, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report. Laster allegedly sold that information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed bets totaling approximately $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” bets to hit both parlay bets and straight bets. After Rozier played only nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted the cash winnings at Rozier’s Charlotte home about a week later, the indictment says.
It is alleged that Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, and Jones, a former player and coach, knowingly participated in rigged poker games. Billups and Jones were allegedly dubbed “figure cards,” who an indictment alleges were “members of the entrapment crews and received a portion of the criminal proceeds in exchange for their participation in the scheme.” The scheme resulted in victims losing at least $7.15 million, as of April 2019, according to the Department of Justice.
(Left) Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups talks to a referee during a timeout in the first half against the Sacramento Kings at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 10, 2025. (Right) Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier (2) walks off the court after the game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan, on Nov. 12, 2024. (Jaime Valdez/Imagn Images; Rick Osentoski/Imagn Images)
Billups is not named in the sports betting scandal that led to Rozier’s arrest. However, the Justice Department mentioned a matchup between the Trail Blazers and Chicago Bulls on March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier’s alleged wrongdoing, in which a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time,” allegedly told an old friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers would “go down” that night to get a better draft pick and sit some top players. of the team. The rest of the players had not yet been public information. The team’s top four scorers, including Damian Lillard, did not play that night, as other conspirators allegedly bet more than $100,000 in total against Portland. The “co-conspirator” in question is listed as a former NBA player whose career spanned from “approximately 1997 to 2014” and “an NBA coach since at least 2021.” Only Billups fits that criteria.
Jones allegedly told someone close to him that a “prominent” Lakers player would not play on Feb. 9, 2023, before the information became public and told the person to place a “big bet” on his opponent. The Justice Department says the player was ultimately ruled out with a lower-body injury; ESPN reported that the player in question is LeBron James, who was ruled out with an ankle injury. The game in question took place two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Jones also allegedly gave apparent inside information on another “one of the Lakers’ best players” 11 months later regarding an injury that would likely affect his performance, which ultimately backfired as the player “performed well” and the Lakers won.
All three figures have pleaded not guilty, while Rozier and Billups remain on administrative leave.
Weeks later, the FBI announced the arrest of Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, who were suspended by Major League Baseball over the summer.
Officials said in an indictment that from May 2023 to June 2025, Clase agreed with a co-conspirator to “make specific pitches in certain MLB games” so that bettors they allegedly associated with “would profit from illegal bets placed based on that inside information.” Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme in June 2025.
Cleveland Guardians pitcher Emmanuel Clase during a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco on June 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
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The indictment says Clase consulted with a punter to throw a ball on the first pitch of an at-bat when he was brought into games in relief. The indictment pointed to cases in specific games, including May 19, 2023 against the New York Mets; June 2, 2023 against the Minnesota Twins; and June 7, 2023 against the Boston Red Sox.
Clase allegedly began soliciting and receiving bribes and kickback payments for agreeing to make specific pitches in April, according to the indictment. In one case, Clase allegedly used his phone in the middle of a game to coordinate with a bettor about a pitch he would make. Bettors allegedly won $400,000 from betting platforms on releases made by Clase between 2023 and 2025.
When Ortiz allegedly joined the scheme, the indictment says he agreed to throw balls for strikes at certain pitches in exchange for bribes or kickbacks. He allegedly agreed to pitch a ball on June 15 against the Seattle Mariners for around $5,000 on his first pitch in the second inning. The indictment says Ortiz agreed to pitch a ball on June 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals for $7,000 on his first pitch of the third inning.
The FBI also dismantled an illegal sports betting ring allegedly operated by Joseph M. “Little Joe” Pernaidentified as a member of the Lucchese crime family in New Jersey, in which two of the 14 arrested were former NCAA wrestlers. Both former wrestlers were charged with racketeering in the first degree, money laundering by promotion in the first degree, conspiracy in the second degree, promotion of gambling by betting in the third degree and possession of gambling records in the third degree.
MLB announced in February that it had fired veteran umpire Pat Hoberg for sharing his legal sports betting accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting emails relevant to the league’s investigation. The league opened an investigation into Hoberg last February after a betting shop caught the attention of officials.
The league said that while the investigation uncovered no evidence that he personally bet on baseball or rigged games, MLB senior vice president Michael Hill recommended on May 24 that Hoberg be fired. Hoberg did not officiate last season. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed Hill’s decision.
MLB umpire Pat Hoberg watches during a game between the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago Cubs on May 12, 2023 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)
In September, three Division I college basketball Players Mykell Robinson, Steven Vasquez and Jalen Weaver were permanently banned from the NCAA for allegedly betting on their own games. The NCAA stated that the three players bet on each other’s games and/or provided information that allowed others to do so during the 2024-25 regular season and that two of them even manipulated their performances to ensure certain bets were won.
Currently, thirty-nine states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico have some form of legalized sports gambling. It is therefore difficult to imagine that we have seen anything more than the tip of the iceberg.
